In this post I’ll introduce my guitar pedal board setup. It is basically unchanged for years. I mostly play a Fender Stratocaster 1986 (Made in Japan) which connects to a BOSS Compression Sustainer CS-3 which does colors the sound a bit, makes it a bit Twangy/round, but not so much to further modulate it. It does do a good job at keeping the sound levels balanced.
Next is the Dunlop Wah Wah which is a classic pedal, sturdy, easy and smooth to operate, although it takes a healthy foot press to turn it on/off, but there’s a good reason for that, mostly to prevent accidental activation. The Dunlop is balanced as well, there’s no frequency that doesn’t sound right.
The Harlot Tube Overdrive by Kingsley is a versatile boutique pedal, it has 3 different overdrive stages, a tone and a gain, it can be very subtle for Blues, or very Warm, saturated, and harmonically rich, and to the extreme – even dark & heavy (reminds me of Black Sabbath riffs).
The trustworthy Boss Distortion DS1, is a classic for solos, with or without wah. The tone knob is set to lows, as its highs are too much to bare…
The TC-Electronics Vibrato is just seating there, I never was fully satisfied with its added value – modulating the pitch up and down, so most of the times it’s off. It could be a nice additive to an acoustic guitar but in retrospect I would rather have a tremolo. I think I’ll let it go eventually.
The Digitech DIGIDELAY is an awesome pedal, it has various options as digital delay (that’s what I mostly use), analog delay, reverse and a few presets. It also has a tap tempo. I hardly use the Ibanez Digital Delay, I think the Digitech is a much better and versatile delay.
The AKAI HEAD RUSH E2 is a Looper and Delay (a knob for setting digital or analog or a mix) with Tap Tempo as well, it’s one of the most easy to operate pedals, allowing you to switch from a Looper into a Delay by pressing the two foot switches simultaneously, it has one downside and that is doesn’t allow long loops like the DITO Looper.
I also had a DOD Phaser but got rid of it. The effect itself was awesome (in a Psychedelic kind of way) but whenever the Pedal was engaged, the volume would sore higher to my liking. I do miss the Phaser ability to create depth so I am planning to eventually get a UNIVIBE or a different Phaser, haven’t decide on which. Any recommendation? let me know in the comments below!
